SomeoneMovie Review: Daybreakers
March 5th 2010 02:46
Premise: An infection originally from bats spreads through humanity, turning the majority of humanity into vampires. These vampires then enslave most of the remaining human populace, using them as living blood farms. However, there is not nearly enough blood to go around, and without fresh blood the vampires devolve into mindless mutant bat-people, the wicked looking Subsiders.
Enter Edward Dalton (Ethan Hawke), a human-sympathising vamire blood doctor working for the corporation that runs the blood farms, headed by Charles Bromley (Sam Neill). Dalton sympathises with the humans, and wants to create a blood substitute to eliminate vampire dependance on them as a food source, allowing them to be freed. I won't give away much more than that, but the plot revolves around Dalton's compassion for humanity and his fight for their survival.
Now, this is the Spierig brothers' follow-up to 2003's brilliant horror-comedy Undead (quite possibly the best Aussie movie I've seen), and needless to say my hopes were pretty damn high going in to this one. Unfortunately, this movie is not as funny or as original as Undead. That being said, however, this is most definitely not a bad movie.
Acting: Solid. Ethan Hawke does a good job as the conflicted vampire haemotologist,
Effects: Mind-numbingly excellent.
Direction & Script: Normally I would judge these separately, but considering the Spierigs both wrote and directed it, it seems only fair. This movie, while not being genre-defining, is just good. Yes, I do have a few qualms with it; some of the dialogue was a bit thin, and I felt the whole sub-plot involving Sam Neill's daughter, while important, felt a bit rushed. But these are minor criticisms with what is overall a very impressive offering. Not since Eskalofrio can I remember a movie which so effectively used the interplay between light and darkness to effectively shape the mood, and the movie is all the better for it. From what I have read, alot of people think they have spotted a whole mess of plot holes; actually, if you look a little closer these people are, in fact, idiots. This movie has very few problems in terms of the script. For example; in one scene, we see Hawke's clothes in a mirror, as the vampire is invisible, and in another he is adjusting his clothes in another mirror. However, if you pay attention, you will notice that the second mirror is actually a small camera with a TV. It's little details like that that help make this movie great to watch.
So, overall, a great vampire romp. Definitely more enjoyable than watching all the teen vampire crap that has been shoved down our throats in recent times, and easily my favourite vampire flick since 30 Days of Night.
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